Julio Richter (Earth-616)
Mutate #527, Ric | Identity = Secret | Affiliation = ; formerly , , , , (founding member), (trainee) | Relatives = Louis Alejandro Garabello Richter (father, deceased); Unidentified mother (presumably deceased); Unidentified stepmother; Gonzalo Richter (uncle); Omar Domingo Richter (cousin); Ramon Richter (cousin); Numerous unidentified siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = New Tian, California; formerly X-Factor Investigations Headquarters, New York City, New York; formerly Detroit, Michigan; Mutant Town, Manhattan, New York City, New York; X-Corp, Paris, France; Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York; Murderworld; Camp Verde Reservation, Arizona; Ship; Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire; X-Factor Complex, New York City, New York; Guadalajara, Mexico | Gender = Male | Height = 5'9" | Weight = 145 lbs | Eyes = Brown | Hair = Brown | UnusualFeatures = | Citizenship = Mexican | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Freedom fighter, adventurer; formerly Private investigator, | Education = Briefly attended boarding school | Origin = Mutant, depowered on M-Day, later repowered by the Scarlet Witch | PlaceOfBirth = Guadalajara, Mexico | Creators = Louise Simonson; Walter Simonson | First = X-Factor Vol 1 17 | HistoryText = Origin Growing up largely unaware of his family's illegal gun-smuggling syndicate, young Julio Esteban Richter saw many hardships. After spending some time in jail with his father, Julio was forced to watch his father's murder, by the time-tossed villain Stryfe, during an arms deal gone bad. When his mutant seismic powers manifested, Julio accidentally destroyed three city blocks. This brought Julio to the attention of The Right, an anti-mutant organization, who kidnapped him. Dubbing him Rictor, they explain to him his mutation, torture him and attempt to force Rictor into using his seismic powers to destroy San Francisco, while claiming to be allied with the mutant terrorists, X-Terminators, X-Factor's alter egos. Thankfully, Rictor was saved by X-Factor and accepted their invitation to join as a trainee member, at the X-Factor Complex. X-Factor Trainee While training at the Complex, Rictor was among the first to notice, X-Factor PR man, Cameron Hodge's devious acts, as he noticed that Hodge's voice matched that of the leader of The Right. After X-Factor battled Apocalypse's Horsemen, in Central Park, Rusty Collins decided to melt the mountain of ice, that Iceman had used to subdue the villains, and Rictor fist-fought Rusty worried that his powers may get out of control and do more harm than good. When Rusty left anyway, Rictor saved Rusty from a gang and he and Rusty worked together to melt the ice and leave a message: "By Their Deeds You Shall Know Them - Mutants Were Here". The children of X-Factor were captured, by The Right, and Rictor was, again, to be used as a weapon. Rictor was rescued, by fellow student, Boom Boom; however, Rictor and Boom-Boom were immediately recaptured until X-Factor arrived and rescued them. Living on Ship After their defeat of Apocalypse, his Ship crash landed on their Complex and X-Factor began living on Apocalypse's sentient Ship, that had a barrier only mutants could enter, and Caliban left with Apocalypse. After the children were given Christmas gifts as donations, they decided to give them to the children who lost their homes during X-Factor's battle. While sleeping, X-Factor and the kids were attacked by Ship, still under the control of Apocalypse, until Rusty freed its consciousness and X-Factor expelled a bomb and Ship, now able to speak, asked to join them. Ship had complete control over every part of its structure and could fashion rooms, weapons, and vehicles as needed from various storehouses and parts it had. Ship was able to design and run training programs for X-Factor, as well as make living quarters and workshop areas for them. While playing around on Ship, the students ran into Beast, who was going over old photos of X-Factor in their teens and revealed their origins, as the original X-Men and students at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. After Iceman was tricked by Infectia to allow her on Ship, Beast attempted to warn Iceman, who was being seduced by her, but due to Beast's lack of intelligence, Iceman couldn't understand him and the students kept her from kissing Iceman. When the Xartans and Lord Zano, in Avengers disguise, attacked X-Factor, the children were protected by Ship, but later aided X-Factor. After finding that they were going to be sent to a private school, Marvel Girl and Iceman took the kids shopping for clothes, where they were attacked by the Alliance of Evil. After defeating the Alliance of Evil, Freedom Force showed-up and ordered Rusty and X-Factor to register, to which X-Factor accepted and Rusty turned himself into the Navy. X-Terminators After seeing Rusty off at a Naval base, Skids, Boom-Boom, and Rictor were enrolled in Phillips Academy, in Exeter, New Hampshire. After a cold reception, from the other students of the academy, the students were awaken in their dorms, by Takashi Matsuya (Wiz Kid), informing them that Artie Maddicks and Leech had been kidnapped, by demons. After leaving the dorms, the students rescued Rusty from his prison and began the search for Artie and Leech. After stopping to get new outfits, Rictor suggested the name X-Terminators for the group, to honor X-Factor, and the group was attacked by demons, kidnapping Taki. Following a mental image from Artie, the X-Terminators battled an invasion of demons. After being captured by the demons, the X-Terminators were teleported to Times Square, where the New Mutant, Magik, was opening a portal to return her teammates from the demon infested dimension of Limbo and the demon N'Astirh, using ten kidnapped mutant infants, one of them being Nathan Summers, as the points of an inverted pentagram (focusing beams of power because of their purity and openness to use them as natural, living conduits who could not block the flow of power and who would not know how to shut it off), kept the portal open. After Artie and Leech freed the X-Terminators, they battled the horde of demons that flowed out of the portal and, after Cannonball rescued Rusty and Skids, joined the New Mutants in rescuing the infants being used to keep the portal open. Rusty suggested that the X-Terminators rescued their teammate, Taki, while the New Mutants continued to rescue the infants and disrupt the pentagram. After rescuing Taki, Julio joined the New Mutants as they began searching for the demonic Magik. While searching for the Darkchilde through-out the city, Rictor and the New Mutants witnessed Magneto, the New Mutants new headmaster, and the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club meeting with N'Astirh and lost all trust in him. The New Mutants, Boom-Boom, and Rictor found Darkchilde battling the demon, S'ym, at the same time her brother, the X-Man Colossus, appeared. Colossus was shocked to see his Little Snowflake in such a state and Darkchilde was embarrassed and teleported away, taking the young heroes with her to Limbo, where she finally decided to stop running from her responsibilities as the ruler of Limbo. Unwilling to loose her friend and teammate, Wolfsbane, jumped into a teleportation disc and found the younger Illyana Rasputin and delivered her before the Darkchilde. Darkchilde emerged from her armor and began to glow of pure light, attempting to kill her younger self, but Wolfsbane stopped her, stating that saving the young Illyana would bring peace to the older Darkchilde. Darkchilde found a way to stop Inferno, although she knew it risked her no longer existing. Darkchilde opened a tremendous portal and sucked all of the remaining demons back to Limbo. Burning so bright with energy, that it hurt to look at her, the Lightchilde hurled her Soulsword into the air and the demons were gone, leaving only the charred remains of her eldritch armor. Colossus cradled the badly damaged armor and heard someone call his name from inside. Opening the armor, Colossus found Illyana had returned to her natural age of a seven year old girl. New Mutants The X-Terminators and New Mutants returned to X-Factor's Ship, with the mutant babies and Gosamyr. Due to his actions during the demonic invasion, Julio was expelled from Phillips Academy and, while the New Mutants returned home and X-Factor attended funerals, the X-Terminators found an Atlantean horn and accidentally called a giant sea creature. The New Mutants returned and, with the aid of Namor the Submariner, they defeated it. After the creature's defeat, X-Factor returned and the New Mutants began to live on Ship, merging with the X-Terminators as Professor X's mansion had been destroyed. The all-new New Mutants team returned Illyana to her home in Ust-Ordynski Collective, Siberia, with her parents. On their return home, Mirage and Brightwind, her winged horse, became ill with a mystical fever. Unaware of how to save Mirage, Ship suggested that the New Mutants go to Dr. Strange to help her. After arriving at the Sanctum Sanctorum, the New Mutants were startled to learn that Dr. Strange was apparently "dead" and they were attacked by a possessed, inflamed Mirage and Brightwind. Mirage reasserted control and Dr. Strange, disguised as "Dr. Sanders", returned all that her body had damaged to normal. While returning Mirage and Brightwind to Ship, the New Mutants were attacked by Freedom Force (government-chartered mutant enforcers composed of former members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants), believing Rusty caused all of the flames. The battle between the New Mutants and Freedom Force awoke Mirage and Brightwind and Ship suddenly warped-off into space with X-Factor. After Rusty and Skids learned that the government never returned the infants to their parents, Dr. Strange teleported the remaining New Mutants to Asgard. After arriving in Asgard, the New Mutants realized that it had been sent to the Negative Zone and Dani Moonstar left them. After being captured, by the Dwarves, the New Mutants were released and joined them, due to Cannonball's relationship with Eitri, king of the Dwarves. As part of the New Muntants, Rictor helped battle Mystique's Freedom Force, Hela, and former ally Caliban, who had become the Horseman Death and Sabretooth while battling in the Morlock tunnels under New York City. Rictor was severely injured by Sabretooth, but was saved by Cable and the other New Mutants. During this time, Rictor first became interested in his teammate Wolfsbane, which in turn made Boom Boom extremely jealous. Rictor was later captured alongside Storm, Boom Boom, Wolfsbane, and Warlock by forces of the island nation Genosha. Only he and Boom Boom escaped unscathed. The combined efforts of the X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants led to him being freed. During this adventure, Rictor shared a heartfelt kiss with Wolfsbane and was later heart-broken when she chose to stay behind. X-Force After the business in Genosha, Rictor left the New Mutants with the intent of reuniting with Wolfsbane back on Genosha. Unable to find Wolfsbane, Rictor joined the Canadian government's Weapon P.R.I.M.E. team, whose sole purpose was the apprehension of Cable. At this time, Rictor was still convinced that Cable was the man who killed his father when Stryfe, Cable's evil clone, was actually his father's murder. ]] After Rictor learned the truth about his father's death, he rejoined his friends in the New Mutants, now formed came into the paramilitary team X-Force. Almost immediately after joining X-Force, Rictor and his new teammate were captured by the X-Men and X-Factor who were seeking Cable for the attempted murder of Professor X; an act that had also been perpetrated by Stryfe. Cable was eventually cleared of the charges and Rictor continued on with X-Force where he first met Shatterstar. Shatterstar and Rictor formed a close friendship that developed into a secret romance. With X-Force, Rictor battled War Machine on board Graymalkin and saved his teammates from Gideon and the Externals. After Rictor helped Shatterstar through a personal crisis, the pair left X-Force to travel to Mexico and put an end to the Ritcher family gun-smuggling business. X-Corporation Rictor would later be one of several former members of X-Force who joined Professor X's restructured X-Corporation. Rictor was located in the Paris X-Corp center and participated in X-Corporation's confrontation with Weapon XII, which was a total catastrophe and led to the death of one of their members, Darkstar. It is unclear if Rictor left X-Corp before or after it disbanded following M-Day. X-Factor Investigations After loosing his powers on M-Day, Rictor battled with severe depression and suicidal thoughts. Recently he accepted Multiple Man's offer to join his detective agency in Mutant Town, X-Factor Investigations. After Quicksilver arrived to Mutant Town, Rictor started hanging out with him, hoping to get his powers back. Along with Elijah Cross, Callisto, Fatale, Blob, Marrow, Abyss and Reaper, they formed the X-Cell group which blamed the U.S. government for M-Day. X-Cell members briefly regained their powers by the time X-Factor made their ambush. When Rictor realized Quicksilver was wrong, he used his powers against him and blasted the Terrigen Crystals through his body, leaving him powerless. Residual crystals embedded in Rictor's skin afforded him immunity to The Isolationist's many mutant powers. Rictor and Wolfsbane's romantic relationship intensified during their time together in X-Factor. However, their romance ended when Rahne suddenly left X-Factor to join Wolverine's black-ops X-Force team. Coming Out While searching for Madrox, Rictor and Strong Guy discovered a dupe of Madrox's has been living in New England as a priest. They decide to investigate further, hoping to find the whereabouts of Madrox Prime. Upon meeting Father Maddox, a masked man crashes through the window with swords blaze. After a brief battle, the attacker was revealed to be Shatterstar, possessed by unknown forces. Once Shatterstar is broken out of his trance-like state, and recognized Rictor, the two embraced one another and finally shared a kiss. Rictor and Shatterstar began a steady romantic relationship after Shatterstar's return though not without its difficulties. Rictor, having finally come to terms with his sexual identity, wanted a stable monogamous relationship with Shatterstar. Shatterstar, on the other hand, found himself interested in a more open relationship which would allow him to explore other sexual possibilities. The two resolved that they would work things out, and proceeded to make up both emotionally and physically. However, before they could get very far, the two were interrupted when pregnant Wolfsbane barged in. Although, Wolfsbane was actually pregnant with Hrimhari's child, she led Rictor and the others to believe it is he who was the father. However, a brief encounter between Hrimhari and Shatterstar in Niffleheim cleared up the question of paternity. Although initial upset about Rahne's deception, Rictor promised to stand by her and offer any aid he could. Rictor and the rest of the X-Factor Investigations crew helped protect Rahne from several lupine and feline demons until the birth. Children's Crusade When Wanda Maximoff was rescued by the Young Avengers, Beast asked her if she would be able to reverse the affects of M-Day by undoing the spell she had cast. Hoping to confirm his theory Jessica Jones called in X-Factor Investigations hoping one of its former mutant members would be willing to participate. Rictor accepted her offer. Wanda's attempt to undo the spell succeeded and his powers were restored. The Search for Rahne's Son After the birth and abandonment of Rahne's son, she remained with X-Factor but fell into a depression. Because Polaris and Banshee brought Wolfsbane to Rev. Maddrox for grief counseling, she decided to find her son. Both Rictor and Shatterstar volunteered (unsolicited) to accompany her. The trio first traveled to Hel and received a mystic amulet to locate the child. The trio final found him in Sproul State Forrest in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, he was being tracked independently by both Darwin and Vanora. They evaded the attacks, and escaped without harm. Once reunited with her son, Wolfsbane chose to leave X-Factor and raise him with the aid and protection of Jack Russell, the Werewolf by Night. Shatterstar and Rictor, however, returned to X-Factor Investigation in New York City. After Rahne and her son, Tier, returned to X-Factor to seek sanctuary from Darwin and other would-be assassins, all of X-Factor were transported to Hell. The Hell Lords vied to gain overall control by killing Tier, and X-Factor fought their demon armies to protect him. When Shatterstar attacked Mephisto to free Tier from a magical prison, Mephisto seemingly vaporised him, before doing the same to Rictor. After X-Factor In fact, Rictor and Shatterstar both ended up going back in time and being transported to the Mojoverse. Rictor fought gladiatorial battles until he was pitted against Shatterstar. Rictor incapacitated Shatterstar and managed to escape the arena with Mojoverse rebels, including the Longshot of this era. Shatterstar was then cloned by Arize, before he awoke and used his powers to transport himself and Rictor forward in time, escaping an attack by Mojo and Spiral. In this new time period, Rictor came across Dazzler giving birth to Shatterstar as a baby. Rictor and Shatterstar helped to deliver the baby, before Shatterstar erased Dazzler's memory. Shatterstar then transported himself, Rictor and himself as a baby forward in time again - by 100 years. Rictor and Shatterstar somehow made it back to Earth and their own time and joined their fellow mutants - including former teammates Strong Guy and Wolfsbane - in New Tian. Rictor was among the mutants that confronted Daisy Johnson and a group of Inhumans when they tried to sneak into the country. After New Tian was dismantled, Rictor attended Iceman's birthday party in New York and revealed that he and Shatterstar were now on a break. | Powers = Rictor was a mutant who lost his mutant powers due to the effects of M-Day. However, Rictor's powers were later restored by the personal intervention of the Scarlet Witch. Rictor's power once again include: ]] *'Seismic Energy Manipulation:' Rictor is capable of generating and releasing seismic energy and tremendously powerful waves of vibrations in any object he came into physical contact with, the vibrations starting in his body, and then emanating outwards, mostly through his fingers, causing objects to shatter or crumble and also using it to create earthquakes, shock-waves or otherwise transport earth matter. When used against objects with a larger surface, the effects were much like an earthquake. ** Seismic Energy Immunity: Rictor is immune to the harmful effects of the vibrations he created. ** Geo Connectivity: Like Storm, Rictor's mutant powers have created a psychic/empathic bond between himself and the primal life force of Earth's biosphere. * Power and Telepathic Immunity (possibly formerly): While fighting The Isolationist, Rictor was shown to be immune to every one of Huber's powers. This was seemingly due to the Terrigen Crystals embedded in Rictor's skin. The crystals were shown to fall into the sewer. It is unknown if he still retains this immunity. He had already displayed some kind of natural psychic defenses against Weapon XII's infection. | Abilities = Rictor is a competent hand-to-hand combatant, and is very skilled with computers. | Strength = Normal human male with moderate regular exercise. | Weaknesses = | Equipment = | Transportation = Shatterstar's Teleportations and X-Factor Hearse; formerly X-Factor Hummer; S.H.I.E.L.D I.P.A.C.; Magik's Teleportation; Warlock | Weapons = | Notes = | Trivia = * Rictor and Shatterstar dated for a long time. Rictor has previously dated Boom Boom and Wolfsbane. * Rictor is openly gay. Rictor has seemed to suggest he has always known deep down that he was gay and was deep in the closet. This had been a point of debate among fans for almost two decades. ** Originally writer Peter David enjoyed playing with and joking about Rictor's ambiguous sexuality: *** "I have much more fun tweaking the fans than actually spelling anything out...I certainly don't think we could say at this point that Rictor is definitively gay. I think we could make the argument that he's bi, but I don't see the point at this juncture in spelling it out – not because of any sense of homophobia or anything like that but out of a sense that I think it's more entertaining and more thought-provoking if we keep it ambiguous." - Peter David ** Later explaining Rictor's prior heterosexual relationships with Boom Boom and Wolfsbane, Peter David compares Rictor to real-life "women who eventually decided they were lesbians, had involvements with men that they ultimately considered unfulfilling."Peter David's "X-Factor": Earth Moving, Star Shattering ** In , Rictor and Shatterstar shared the kiss first on-panel male-male kiss between two mainstream male superheroes in mainstream Marvel comic book history.Peter David's "X-Factor": Earth Moving, Star Shattering * Rictor lost his mutant powers due to the effects of M-Day. However, Quicksilver's Terrigen mutations briefly restored his powers. He later had is X-Gene and powers fully/permanently restored by the Scarlet Witch. * Rictor has suffered from severe depression and suicidal thoughts since he was young. ** When The Right kidnapped several X-Factor students, Rictor actually contemplated suicide rather than face Cameron Hodge again. ** After losing his powers on M-Day, Rictor facing severe depression again would spent time on rooftops while trying to work up the courage to jump. ** Rictor once tried to take several O*N*E* agents at gun point to protect Siryn and her unborn baby. This act was recognized by several of his teammates (including Siryn) as being suicidal, over emotional and needlessly reckless. * He is one of the few people with whom Shatterstar "connected", and who can be used as an "anchor" for his teleportation powers. | Marvel = | Wikipedia = | Links = }} Category:Depowered Mutants Category:Geokinesis Category:Power Negation Category:Terrigenesis Category:Repowered Mutants Category:Genoshan Mutates Category:Depowered Mutants Terrigenesis-Repowered Category:M-Day Depowered Category:Depowered Terrigenesis-Mutates Category:Telepathic Immunity Category:Multilingual Category:Homosexual Characters Category:Seismokinesis Category:Depression Category:Xavier Institute Student Category:Clairvoyants Category:Telepaths Category:Empaths